Today, in the public space across from the White House, people are likely to encounter a strange mixture of office workers during lunch breaks. Simultaneously, tourists wearing MAGA hats are mixed around the hotel owner’s former mansion Decatur House. For at least the past three weeks, it was in that scene that Lafayette Park became a crucible for the struggle for the legacy of slavery that still exists in the United States: systematic racism.
Since then, the debate about systemic racism has swept the country and the world. The Trump administration has repeatedly denied that discrimination against black Americans is the foundation of the country’s political, economic, and social structure. It is undeniable that for hundreds of years, racist policies, whether explicit or implicit, have cast a shadow on blacks physically, emotionally, and economically. After the Civil War, the United States may think that it has dragged chattel slavery into the dustbin of history. Still, the country’s work of incinerating traumatic remains has never been done very well. Instead, it has left behind the embers that are still burning today: a black education system that Americans cannot accept, substandard medical care makes them more vulnerable to death and disease, and the economy prevents millions of people from earning a living wage. This kind of systemic discrimination is also a matter of life and death. The police violence that only kills hundreds of African Americans each year is the beginning. The corona-virus pandemic is understandable. Black Americans often find themselves affected by discriminatory policies and live in areas full of pollution, and in many cases, even lack the basic choices of nutritious food.
Perhaps even more surprising is that the rest of the United States is becoming aware of these realities. For decades, the truth of systemic racism has been shrouded in the carpet, lest it makes white Americans uncomfortable and damages the election opportunities of those who can solve the problem.
Source:
www.time.com/5851855/systemic-racism-america/